5 At-Home Active Games for Kids on Holiday Break Turn Boring into Fun with Little or No Expense! | ||
| Here’s the conundrum: The kids are off from school on holiday break and complain they’re bored.They haven’t gotten any new toys yet, and you don’t want to spend much money entertaining them because the holiday is right around the corner. Below are 5 great ideas for free or cheap entertainment at home. Each of these games can last a good 30 to 60 minutes if they’re into them. I can remember playing Hall Ball with my brother for a solid afternoon. | ||
1. Keep the Balloon Up! |  | |
| Inflate a regular balloon with plain air and toss it to your kids. The goal is to pass it back and forth without ever letting the balloon drop enough to touch the floor or the furniture. Each time it does, the last person who touched it gets one point. Play as long as you want, racking up points as you go. | ||
2. Hall Ball |  | |
| Got a long hallway? This is a great game for two players! Grab a ball – it can be almost any size from a tennis ball to a playground ball. Each player stations him- or herself on his or her knees in a doorway on one end. The ball is rolled between players, similar to air hockey. The goal is to get the ball past your opponent into the room behind them. Close any other doors along the hallway so the ball can bounce off. Any open areas, such as stairs or a connecting hallway, pose an extra challenge: the last person to touch the ball before it rolls down the stairs has to go get it and come back to the game within 10 seconds. Each time the ball slips past you into the room you are guarding is a point for the other team. If you have 3 kids, play to 5 points and rotate players. | ||
3. Dance Challenge |  | |
| Put on some fun and festive music and practice your dance moves. One player does a dance move and the other player(s) have to copy it exactly. If they all get it right, the next player becomes the leader. If someone gets it wrong, the leader remains the leader for another turn. Be warned – kids older than preschool age are typically better at this than adults! | ||
4. Nerf Gun Targets |  | |
| Got extra cardboard shipping boxes hanging around? Have the kids draw targets on the sides and have an old-fashioned shoot-out! If the children are facing the same direction, you probably won’t have to worry about anyone taking a foam dart to the eye, and they can make the point system as simple or complex as they like. | ||
5. Wrapping Paper Roll Sword Fight |  | |
| This game sounds seasonal, but you can switch it to Pool Noodle Sword Fights in the summertime (cut one pool noodle I half to make two “swords”). Two or three kids can play or multiple teams of two or three kids each. Just like in fencing, a touch to the body is a point. If you need to limit it, a touch to the tee-shirt is a point, legs are fair game (no point) and a touch to the head is against the rules (point to the other player). Just be sure to use up all the wrapping paper first. | ||
